NEW
YORK (Reuters) -- After more than a year of struggling to find a buyer for
Muppet-maker Jim Henson Co, German's EM.TV is now in talks with four possible
bidders and hopes to unload the unit before the end of the year, people familiar
with the situation said Friday.

EM.TV is negotiating to sell the creators of Miss Piggy and Big Bird to either
Entertainment Rights Plc, privately held Classic Media or the former chief
executive of United Paramount Network (UPN), Dean Valentine, these people said.

A fourth possible buyer is billionaire investor Haim Saban, who built his
fortune on the children's characters Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and whose
interest in the Muppets had been previously reported.

EM.TV is facing a decline on a 63.9 million euro ($64.5 million) loan that comes
due at the end of the year and company sources have said they hope to sell
Henson by then. People familiar with the deal expect the unit to fetch between
$100 million and $150 million.

People inside EM.TV have said in the past that the company might try to hang on
to a minority stake in Henson to retain access to some of the programming and
character rights.

Representatives for all the individuals and companies involved could not be
reached for comment.

Aside from Saban, who raked in about $1.5 billion from the sale of his stake in
Fox Family Worldwide last year, it was unclear whether any or all of the suitors
had lined up the necessary financing yet to do a deal.

London-based Entertainment Rights, which develops and licenses children's
programming, has a market capitalization of about $43 million, based on its
Friday closing price on the London Stock Exchange.

Classic Media, which holds the rights to kids' characters including Casper the
Friendly Ghost, is privately held and does not have to publicly reveal its
finances.

Jim Henson Co, which grew to fame designing beloved children's characters, is
now primarily a television and film production company. Its most recent
made-for-TV movie It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie drew 11
million viewers on NBC last Friday.